The Dragon Wars (Book 1)

Chapter 35: Incoming (Jangra POV)

A few weeks had past, the training with Socra had gone great for me so far. She had taught me a lot of fighting moves and she had told me to make ones for my own as well. I had not had much look making my own, she told me it was normal and to not worry about it.
If I was the dragon of destiny, should I not be making up my own moves though? Socra said, "the black dragons know our moves, they are just slower or often get tricked into us using them."
I suppose she was right, but it Plyma, the leader of the black dragons really was a purple dragon... He would have the traits of a red and a black dragon. I would not be able to fool him. My father said, "Leave the fighting against Plyma for me."
It didn't make much sense to me though, the dragon of destiny was supposed to be the one to end all wars. If that were so, then in the end... I would be the one fight Plyma, I was worried about my father because of that. I know he would step in, in front of me. That means if I was the one to kill him, it would be because my father was not there.
I shivered, I really did not want to think about it. My father told me not to worry about it, that I needed to focus on my training. I couldn't help but think about it, the whole tribe had an weird feeling around it the last few weeks.
All the kids in elders were hidden up at a cave out in the edge of the territory, our best warriors were left there to guard them. It left our camp open... I did not like thinking about that. But my father was right to pick them over us, the kids were the future of the tribe.
I shook my head once again, I was also worried about Yikla. After the night I had confessed my love to her, she had gone off and disappeared... My father said it was probably because she needed to get back to her tribe before they got suspicious of her.
I had a different feeling that him though, if I would have told him what had happened that night she left he might be thinking something completely different. I also had a different mindset of what it could also be. I wanted to say that it could not be true, but I could also not help but think that it might be.
I had always heard how evil black dragons were. She might be using us to plan something completely different. This could all just be one big game, or maybe she could just be doing this to stir up some tension and start a war. I had heard about wars starting because of dragons like those as well.
I shook it off, it was early in the morning, autumn was about here at this point and there was a good amount of dew in the cave and on the ground outside, as I could see from my spot that I was sitting beside my mother.
I got up, it was a lot earlier than I normally woke up, I made sure that I did not wake my mother up or my brother and my sister. I figured I would head over to Socra's cave. She always told me, if I needed help just go there and she will be awake.
She was always right, every morning... No matter how early I was she was always up already just waiting for me. The other night I had come into the cave, I had confessed about my love for Yikla and how I was worried about her and everything...

"Socra... I need to talk to you." I said outside the cave. I looked around the camp, there was a guard staring at me but once he saw that I was just going to talk to my mentor he turned away. I nodded thankfully, I didn't want any dragon spying on this conversation that I was about to have with her.
It took her just a few seconds to respond, I was about to whisper a bit louder. But she flew over to the front of her very large cave... She was alone in that I was always confused why she wanted a big cave. It wasn't even a nice cave anyways.
When she landed beside me, I looked at her. She did not look like she was tired or she had just woken up. I was a bit confused about it, but I shook it off as she nodded at me with a smile on her face. It quickly disappeared when she noticed that I was not smiling back.
"Yes Jangra... I can see a look on your face, come in. I can see that you are worried about something." She said to me. I looked at her and nodded as we walked into her big cave.
I always wondered how she could always notice what I was thinking, I often wondered if I needed to tell her what was on my mind. She probably already knew what I was going to say anyways.
"It's Yikla... I'm worried." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, squinting as if she was trying to go through my head. Almost like she was the oracle dragon... I already knew, Yikla had told me that some day very soon, my sister Mik would be the oracle dragon.
"Your worried, is it because you are in love with her?" She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments. She laughed when she saw the expression on my face. I knew she was reading my thoughts! I knew that I was not crazy!
"What??? How did you know?" I said to her. She looked at me for a few seconds, then she lowered her head and smiled at me.
"You are just like your father. I can always tell, your father was the exact same way when he was in love with that black dragon." She said to me. I looked at her for a few seconds, still I was a bit surprised, but then I nodded to her.
"Oh... I, don't know what to say really. All the dragon's tell me they go to you very often for a lot of advice. I just did not know how you would react." I said to her. She looked at me and then she began walking in circles around her cave.
I watched her just walking around, she was clearly thinking about it. She did not know what to say to me quite yet. It was perfectly normal, most dragons did that when they were thinking of something to say with the dragon that they were with.
"Yes... I am the dragon to come to when it comes to that aspect..." She began saying. She stopped for a few moments and then she looked at me and she nodded. "The black dragon... Yes, your father was in love with one for a long time. She has feelings for you as well I have seen."
I looked at her a bit surprised once again but I just nodded to her. She walked over to me and nudged her head against my body to try and make me feel better. I looked at her and tried to give her my best impression of a little smile.
"Yes... Why did she leave us then?" I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments and then she nodded back to me. All was silent for a few moments, for a moment I wondered if she had forgotten I was there after she had her head turned for a little while.
After a few more moments, what seemed like hours. She turned back to me and she had a smile on her face. I could tell she was thinking about it for a few minutes.
"Yes... Your father and I have noticed the feelings you have for each other. Your father will not deny it if you two become mates." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments. I was actually a bit surprised, but I had a feeling that my father had known this as well all along.
I looked at her, I appreciated her stamp of approval but it really would not matter all that much if she was not here. I knew that some of the elder dragons frown upon my father being in love with a black dragon. I had heard a few talking about him behind his back a few times.
Once they noticed that I was there, they quickly scurried of in different directions. I wondered how the black dragons were always so fine with Plymas father being in love with a red dragon. After all that was the reason that a war had been started in the first place.
"That's not what I came here for though... That's not what I was asking at all in fact." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, she was a bit confused. I could tell, sometimes for a smart dragon that I and her often were, we could sometimes be very stupid.
"Oh yes... She is gone... You are right I suppose." She said to me. I looked at her and I nodded. She looked at me in my eyes sadly for a few moments and then she turned her head once again. I sighed and then I began walking out of the cave.
So much for a dragon that I could use to help me I suppose. I walked away, she did not hear me walking out so I said one last thing to her real quick before I walked back over to my cave and got some sleep.
"Well... I mean. I guess I will just leave you be." I said to her, making sure that she knew I was leaving. For a few seconds she seemed as if she had not heard me at all. I sighed, her mind was probably in a different place, she was probably worried about the war.
If the war was even true, my father had said that Plyma was a better dragon than his father. Yikla could just be using this to start another war. She could just be tricking me as if this were some sort of game to her.
Socra then turned around and stopped me before I left the cave. She looked at me for a few moments and then nudged up against me. This time I did not feel any emotions for it, I really was not all that worried about it, I knew that she had bigger things to worry about.
"Jangra... I heard you, she is gone. She is probably embarrassed and felt like she has let the black dragons down by falling in love with you. It isn't just that though." She said to me. I looked at her a bit surprised but then I nodded for her to continue.
Once again, she did her little routine of walking around the cave when she was thinking about something and then she turned back over to me.
"Thank you for the help Socra... I am not all that worried about it, I just did not know that love would be so hard to find for a dragon like me." I said to her. I once again began walking out of the cave but then she stopped me once again.
I was a bit confused why she had stopped me this time. At this point we were just prolonging a useless conversation. But I nodded to her and figured I would hear her out on whatever it was that she wanted to tell me.
"Jangra... She loves you, she is embarrassed, it is not just that... She has to get back to her tribe. They will be worried about her if she is gone too long." Socra said to me. It was the exact same thing my father had told me, just in a different sort of context.
I looked at her and then nodded, she was probably right, I was probably thinking to deep into it, she smiled at me and then nudged me, I nudged against her back.
"Thank you, I will think about it. I am tired, I need to get some sleep." I said to her. She looked at me for a few seconds, then she nodded to me once again.
"You do that, we have a lot of training I am going to teach you tomorrow, something you wont like but you will need to learn. Medicine stuff." She said to me. I looked at her and then I nodded, to be truthful I really did not mind it all that much.
The reason why I wad noy paying attention that day was because I was worried about Plyma. I had seen her out of her cave once. When she saw me for a few seconds she quickly scurried back into the medicine cave a bit embarrassed.
I wondered to words she had to say to Ipse, Ipse was still in there with her. I knew that Ipse had already forgiven her. He had admitted it at our most recent meeting, I felt bad for him, he still loved her. No other dragon in the tribe cared about her.
I had noticed it when she had walked out of her cave, all of the looks that every dragon had given her. I did not feel bad for her at all, she had brought it out on herself. I shook my head and then my eyes came back on what was going on.
Socra was staring at me waiting for me to leave her cave. I nodded my apology to her and then I quickly scurried off and went back to my cave.

I realized that I was hungry, I had not eaten in a few days, normally I dragon ate every 2 or 3 days, it had been 5 days since I had last eaten. I was too busy being worried about training to even think about it.
I walked over to the prey pile, it was actually a bit empty for this time of year. But I also could not blame anyone for it, my father had been having warriors training the dragons that were hunters and even cave dragons and medicine dragons last few days.
I grabbed half a deer from the pile, it was not my favorite thing to eat, but it was one of the few things that we actually had left. I began eating it, the food was a couple days old and I shivered as I put it down my throat.
The tribe had bigger things to worry about, I could not blame them. I figured that maybe I should suggest to Socra that we should go hunting today. I had not done it since the first day when I was first being tested.
I could not blame her though, after I was finished I looked around the clearing, it was fairly empty. But that was also because I was up a lot early then most dragons usually liked to get up.
Normally Yikla would be up walking around the clearing going about her day. I shook my head, I needed to stop thinking about her. I finished eating off the rest of my deer and then I began walking to Socra's cave.
I yelled into the cave to tell Socra that I was there. I waited a few seconds for her to respond. But I did not hear her yell anything back at me. I walked into the cave, maybe she was asleep, it was about time that she got some sleep.
When walked in I looked around and noticed that she was not there. I shivered, for some reason something did not seem right. It was like that the day that Yikla had randomly left. I closed my eyes for a few moments and then I walked back into the clearing.
As soon as I did I heard a lot of dragons shouting and I looked around a bit confused. There were no dragons nearby but slowly but surely the shouting grew closer and closer.
Dragons began walking out of their caves a bit confused as too what was going on, but I already knew what it was. As soon as a dragon came running in, with sweat coming down his skin, I knew...
He yelled to every dragon in the camp, I instantly froze.
"Incoming!!!"